Saturday, March 21, 2015

Breaking: Individual Shot by Police in Calgary During Altercation at Anti-Racist Rally

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: If anyone has photos, especially photos of the individual before the shooting took place, we would ask that photos be sent to arc.collective200 (at) gmail (dot) com.UPDATE 5: The individual who was shot has been named as Morgan Thompson.UPDATE 1: We have our first photo of the individual who was shot:

Photo courtesy of Saima Jamal.

UPDATE 2: According to someone who claims to have witnessed the event as it went down, the individual who was shot was throwing things he was picking up off the street at the police, but he didn't appear to have been armed.UPDATE 3: According to the police, there was a brief struggle when they approached the man, after which he allegedly, "produced a metal pipe." Shots were then fired at the man who last we heard was in critical condition.

We hadn't heard of any efforts by the boneheads in Calgary or London to hold a march, though we wouldn't have been surprised if they had. Anti-Racist Action, however, did hold a rally in Calgary to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Racism. During the rally there was an incident:

A group called Anti-Racist Action Calgary was holding its annual rally against racism to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination near City Hall.Members say a man approached them yelling “white power.” He then started walking west along Stephen Avenue.“He was quite angry, yelling quite loud. And he spat on the ground. He didn’t do anything more he was just yelling at them,” said Ryan Wellicome, a SAIT journalism student who was at the rally.....“The police got out of a van that was already there and just started to walk towards him just, I think, to make sure he wasn’t going to get aggressive,” explained Sherry Walford, a Mount Royal University student who witnessed the man at the rally.Police followed the man to a location across the street from the Hyatt Hotel in the back alley of the Palomino bar. A witness in the hotel tells Global News he saw a police van pull up to the alley, and heard several shots fired. Jordan Cummings says he saw police fire a number of shots.

UPDATE 4: There are people claiming that the individual who was shot, and despite shouting "white power" at an anti-racist rally, is not a white supremacist. We aren't sure how much stock we put into these claims at this time as those making the claim did not provide any corroborating details.In the meantime, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team are looking for witnesses to the shooting.

“We know there would have been a number of people in the vicinity in the buildings nearby and the buildings surrounding the alley where the officer involved shooting occurred, and also just pedestrians walking nearby,” Susan Hughson, Executive Director of ASIRT said.Anyone who saw what happened is asked to contact the ASIRT southern office at 403-592-4306.

Over at Stormfront, the speculation has been rampant as folks there embrace the usual conspiracies boneheads are wont to believe. Included in this list here are Kyle McKee who suggests setting up a collection for the man who was shot, Craig Cobb, and Bill Noble (all three, incidentally, have spent significant time in jail for their particular racially-based crimes):

It is interesting when considering these reactions, especially in relation to the shooting of African-American youths in the United Stated, something that one of the individuals posting in this thread alludes to and seems to suggest was a justifiable use of force:

Evidently, "Neart" hasn't read the news as three of the four police officers involved appear to have been in training, thus were not "highly trained." There is also a photo of a pipe which the police allege was used in the incident. UPDATE 6: Information about Thompson is still sketchy, but one person posting to Reddit claiming to know the man who was shot is suggesting that he was not a white supremacist:I knew this guy. He's not a white supremacist. What he is is an asshole. A loser still living the high school life 12 plus years late.I don't know him personally but I've seen the other losers he associates with all over social media crying out for undeserved justice.From what I gather he was "trolling" and "goofing" with those at the rally. Cops wanted to ask him questions and he bolted. Cornered him in an alley and shot him. Metal pipe? They claim it was a bike seat.I don't really care about the story or the guy. Apparently he is in a long term relationship with a woman of another race.Until more information is forthcoming, we've changed the title of the article to fit our current understanding of what occurred yesterday.

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